Bad News, Worse News, Good News that May Make the Worse News a Bit Better, and Phenomenal News!

When I say bad news, I mean super bad news. Like, "don't you press that publish button Paul!" news. But I guess I have to. *sigh* so without further ado: the following.

Bad News:

Posts just aren't coming to me anymore as they once did when I started this blog two years ago. I love my blog and I love my almost-50 followers too, but I haven't been providing the weekly juice that I could be.


Worse News:

In response to the bad news, I will be permenantly terminating Christaholic: The God Addiction sometime before May.


Good News that May Make the Worse News a Little Bit Better:

Believe it or not, there is actually something that can make those two horrifying words, "permanent termination" *pauses to shudder* a little better. I will be replacing it with a new blog! Since the second planet in my Solar System right now is writing, and has thus been my passion for the past 6 months, I will be continuing to post on a new blog about my writing, my books, my life, my faith, and etc. I will still have a blogger presence; just in a different way :)

What about the posts that I have written here? I will definitely be saving them all and they will be added to a huge Word document file on my computer entitled "CTGA Blog Posts" and will be kept forever. My favorite blogposts such as "Excruciating Love," "Glorifying and Enjoying God," "Be the Light of the World," The three "Who He Is"s, "Papeezokwazik," the Hebrews 11 series, "The Google Addiction," "Colors," and "Monumental," will be eventually editted and published on the new blog (If one of your favorite blogposts is not included in this list, tell me in the comments and I'll be sure to edit and publish it as well.) Yes, the new blog will be mainly about my writing, but in reality it's just a general "everything Paul related" blog.

The new blog is: News from the Storyfront [The name is subject to change]

I really, really hate to delete this blog, but that's just where God is taking me right now. Now, I'll be serving in a new way while blogging about what I loving doing for the One I love following!


Phenomenal News:

If you know anything about me or my blog, you know what the phenomenal news is: Jesus loves you. His love is bigger than my blog - heck, it's bigger than the sky. And when you were still His enemy, when you were still rebelling against him, and when you were still ignorant, He still died for you. And now we can worship Him in the presence of His awesome glory and power!

God bless, people. I love you and I hope you come visit me at the new blog, even if writing isn't your thing. The Facebook page will still be open, as of now. So make sure you like it and you will get a weekly-ish post from there.

In Christ,
Paul

but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40:31 

Who He Is pt. III

The cool-looking pictures have returned for a limited time!

If CTGA was my child, I would be panicking.

Because my child just turned two.

And two-year-olds are terrifying.

Anyways, here comes my annual post that I absolutely must not miss! On this date, 731 days ago, I posted my first post on Christaholic: The God Addiction. My first ever post was all about God, because I knew, and I still know today, that God comes first. I made sure that my readers knew who God is and what He did before I tried anything else. That post was entitled Who God Is, I later came out with a sequel called Who God Is Pt. II that following month (Amazing titles right?) Well, today, I want to celebrate my blog’s cotton anniversary by adding another installment to those wonderful posts. Yes, I wrote them two years ago, and I have certainly grown in my writing capabilities (and I have also educated myself more on the theoretical origins of gravity), so perhaps this post will be a tiny itsy bitsy witsy better written. 

In "Who God Is Pt. I," I talked about God the Father, that he formed us and is Lord over us, and how His all-wise design in and for our lives was created for our good. In "Who God is Pt. II," I talked about God the Son, how he sacrificed His throne for a chair, and left his heavenly home to dwell among sinners, and eventually give his life up for us. Today, I will cover the next part of the Trinity – God the Holy Spirit. The first two parts were short and to-the-point, so I’ll follow suit.

When Jesus ascended back into heaven forty days after His Resurrection, the Holy Spirit descended onto man. The Holy Spirit’s first public appearance however was at the events of Pentecost in Acts 2. This event shows us the Holy Spirit’s power and what He does in a pretty amazing way. Jesus tells us that when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, we will receive power (Acts 1:8), but this isn’t like the power to fly or to dodge bullets or see through walls; instead, it is the power to reach in ways that seem impossible. In our example of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit gives the apostles the ability to “speak tongues” so that people from all over the place understood what they were saying. In essence, the apostles literally learned a new language overnight, and now each person in Jerusalem at that time could understand what they were saying.

So when I became a Christian and received the Spirit, I learned Portuguese. I’m just kidding, I didn’t. I didn’t learn any new language actually. It may seem odd that the apostles at Pentecost became fluent in a new language when they were filled with the Holy Spirit, but these days, Christians have to take AP Spanish courses in college or whatever. Are Christians not filled with Holy Spirit? I would answer that with a “no.” Every Christian is filled with Holy Spirit; however, the ability to speak different languages is only one of the gifts that He has offered.

Today, the Holy Spirit gives Christians different gifts. There are seven gifts, I believe; if you remember, I mentioned them very briefly last winter when explaining the story behind the song “The 12 Days of Christmas.” These gifts include giving, teaching, prophesying, edifying, and other things (I had to memorize them all for last year's Christmas play, yet those are the only ones I remember... Ugh.) When one comes to faith, a particular gift is given to them through the Holy Spirit. He gives the gifts according to what He has called the individual to do. Say, if he calls an individual to do youth ministry, He would give him the gift of teaching or maybe edification (I would say lots and lots of patience too, but that's a fruit of the Spirit, not a gift.) It depends entirely on the call and the individual. The Holy Spirit gives specific gifts for specific purposes today just as He gave the gift of tongues for the specific purpose of reaching those of different nations in Pentecost. He gives these gifts so what seems impossible to us and those around us, could be made possible for His glory. Frankly, it's pretty awesome...

 

However, the work of the Holy Spirit is more than handing out spiritual gifts, conviction also has a large fraction on the Holy Spirit's job description. He's the One that convinced us to become a follower of Christ in the first place. Okay, that was much simpler to explain than the whole gift thing was...

Now, I would like to point out something right away that Acts 2 tells us in verse 11. Once the apostles come out of the temple (I imagine them screaming to the top their lungs, waving their arms around, and being extremely public at this point...) they told of how great their church services were going to be, how great their pastor was going to be, and how great the building was going to look. No they didn't! They came out shouting about how great their God was.

If you know about what Acts records on throughout the rest of the book, you should know that the Spirit-filled Christians did some major downgrading! The first thing they did was marvel how great and awesome their God was, then when they could understand that God was of incomprehensible worth, they figured that their worldly addictions weren't worthy of their time.

Let's put this in perspective here. God is better than coffee, for example. Half the people I hang around love coffee like it's their child or something. I'm sure there were a few "coffee addicts" in the crowd of apostles that day. And what did they do when the Holy Spirit entered them and they realized God's ultimate importance? They downgraded and left their "coffee addiction" behind! I'm not saying coffee is bad, I'm just saying that it can't compare to the Lord, and if coffee in some way henders you from growing closer the Lord, then you may have to find an alternative way to get your energy. God is better than coffee - He owns coffee for goodness' sake - so make sure you apply it.

God is so amazing that entire addictions have been left for Him. It is the Holy Spirit who shows us these things. This blog's entire point is to glorify God above our addictions, and Pentecost and the entire book of Acts is a great example when just that happened, starting a global movement.

So that is all for today! Happy birthday CTGA and may you all have a God glorifying day!

For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 

Romans 8:5-6 

In Christ,
Paul

The Garden Gnome is Chair Shopping...

So I hired him... I hired that annoying garden gnome that is supposed to whack me with a chair for each month that passes by without a published post. Remember? I mentioned him on my last post. So he's pretty much scared me into posting something. So I got busy.

 

No, I'm not being as fancy as I was once upon a year ago with the epic-looking picture and the catchy post titles (although I must say, this post's title is a rather interesting one...) but I do try my best nevertheless. As I explained later, my hobbies sort of took a turn. I went from writing blogposts for CTGA to writing blogposts for LCWYM to writing entire books and I'm trying to get back to writing on here as hard as I can. So I would really like to just think of something spectacular right now and write until my fingers bleed, but that hasn't been happening *sad face* so what do I do?

 

I think of something spectacular and write until my fingers bleed, that's what I do!

 

I love analogies. They're so fun! Jesus used them a whole bunch of times to talk about important stuff. Today, I would like to use CTGA as an analogy... an analogy of backsliding, more or less. When I started this blog, I was sooooo excited. I posted, like, every 5 days it seemed like. I apparently had a lot to say, and I just wanted to put it out to the world. But then as my priorities changed, I moved a couple times, I met new people, I explored more things, and CTGA was left in the corner to spit curses at me and bawl their blogspots out, and who was I to care? Man, I've been so mean, it seems like. Once I finally realized that it exists (I mean, I knew it existed, I just didn't care that it existed), I felt sorry for it, and decided to come back.

 

So, hi there!

 

A lot of times we treat Christianity like I have treated CTGA, when we first see it, we are just so excited about it and before the sun sets, everyone knows who your new self is. And then life happens, your priorities change, and you soon ignore who you are and what you're supposed to do. I mean, my Facebook lists my job as "Author at Christaholic: The God Addiction" and I still choose to put it aside, just like we are constantly reminded that we are Christians by going to church every Sunday and Wednesday, but we still tend to put it aside. During my absence, I've told around a dozen people that I had a blog; but there's a difference from having something and actually using something. Like, I can be the author of CTGA until the day I die, but if I don't actually write in it, am I actually being it's author? I mean, you can have Christ accessible and call yourself a Christian, but if you only like Him on certain days or mention who He is a couple times during the month, are you  actually what you claim to be? Being a Christian is a full time job (an awesome full-time job, at that) when you unconditionally love Christ and live for Him every single day; and writing for CTGA is too, if it's not posting, it's planning, writing, or editing a post. So I plan on changing my priorities again, get motivated and do stuff! I don't have time to backslide, for goodness' sake! If you're going through some backsliding in Christianity, or really anything else of importance, then do likewise. Change your priorities, perhaps find an accountability partner to motivate you and do stuff! It's certainly easier said than done, but it must happen. Hope you had a Gospel-filled month!

 

So, I shall hopefully see you later, and I plan on disappointing that silly gnome. >8D

 

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

(1 Corinthians 15:58)

In Christ,
Paul

Well This is Dumb...

So yeah... about the whole suddenly-disappearing thing going around in the CTGA world, it's not very cool. I would say that I'm sorry (again), but it wouldn't really matter much if I just never post anymore. Believe me, it is at this moment where I give myself a big round of facepalms because I've just become too pre-occupied.

It's not that I'm busy all of the sudden, it's just that I've switched hobbies. Those hobbies include writing books, copious amounts of texting, listening and discovering my new favorite style of music, laying in bed exploring the fabrics of my mind, eating, sleeping, drinking, and etc. You know how it goes, don't you? Blogging however has just escaped from my list of hobbies, possibly because of it's "new and improved" dashboard thingy that came out centuries ago that I absolutely loathe. But lo and behold, I AM COMING BACK!!!!

Maybe...

Anyways, I guess you're wondering what has been going on since my latest post that I published last year (Happy New Years, by the way). Well for one, God has given me the opportunity to go to Uganda this summer for a short-term mission trip, so I'm oober excited (click here for information on that). I have also written a book, and I enthusiastically await the time when I need to completely rewrite it (not). For those inquisitive minds that want to know everything about it, I'll tell you this: it's a fiction book that I'm not even going to think about publishing until all four of it's sequels are written and perfected. That is all you need to know for now ;) I am also endeavoring in this new concept called "coffee." Even though I'm not a huge fan of it's bitter taste, I may end up getting used to it. So that's exciting. In the year 2012, I've been to at least 5 funerals, 3 birthday parties, one wedding, 2 camps, two or three apocalypses, and about a half a dozen-ish mission trips in the community and across state lines, and 2013 will be all the more exciting! So God is still working in my life and I pray He continues on for the rest of it!

Should you be expecting me to post more often? I don't know, depends entirely on... something. I sure hope so, and maybe I can post a reminder that could encourage me to do more blogging. Or perhaps I should hire this annoying garden gnome to slap me with a chair every month that passes by without a published post. I don't know, we'll have to wait and see. But rest assured, I haven't died or anything... yet

In Christ,
Paul

My Immediate Thoughts on a Scripture that I Randomly Selected Just Now

Hi! I was just frolicking around the web, doing nothing and I realized that I possess something (I didn't know what) on this beautiful world wide web. This epiphany astounded me until I contemplated on what I did on whatever I possessed. And it just didn't seem, at the time, to be appropriate that I leave whoever cares at a stand-still after so long of not doing whatever I do on whatever this new entity that I am reuniting with is. Long story short, as I reorganized my thoughts and discovered little articles in the crannies of my cranium (and after Googling some stuff, of course) I realized what I do here and what exactly here is. It was not theoretically riding cyber-ponies on a website called HumpledingleOlphilthemius.com, as I originally thought, but it was writing about the greatness of God on a blog by the obscure name, "Christaholic: The God Addiction" to an audience of approximately 40 people, in which they call "followers". So, as I greatly mourned on the loss of appetite to continue on with this great venture, yet at the same time realizing that it was innocuous, I decided that it was never too late to start again. I had nothing I had in mind to write about, so I figured I would open the Bible to a random passage of Scripture and blog about my immediate thoughts. The passage that caught my eyes was 1 John 3:1, specifically the first part. It's quite the beautiful passage, frankly. It goes like this:

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be

called children of God! And that is what we are!

1 John 3:1a

My mind went straight towards the Christian doctrine of adoption. I discovered that usually, I pack with me a bounty of Bible verses, resources, and a nifty-looking picture created from a website that has unfortunately shut down, but, I have not made for myself the time, so I'll keep this simple.

We are indeed the children of God and that is indeed good news! The love of the Father (which means we're His kids) has been lavished upon us. The Greek word here for "lavished" is truly a beautiful word. I don't know what it is, but Greek is a beautiful language and the original language of the Bible usually means something. But whatever is, I'm sure it is something precious. The love lavished on us must have been fierce. I mean, He sent His Son to die. That's pretty lavish-y. And He sent Him so that we can be His children. That's pretty love-y. The importance of a father is huge in a child's life (anyone's life for that matter) and the fact that we have a Heavenly Father is also vitally important to our lives. How so? God changes us to be more like Him by being our Father. Like sons are practically carbon copies (with a few genetic differences) of their fathers! It's really interesting, when you think about it. When God is your Father, you become more like Him. I am blessed to have a Heavenly Father. I am also blessed to have an earthly father. Unfortunately many people don't have earthly fathers (well, they do but they don't, if you know what I mean) but what's more important is that many people also don't have the Heavenly Father. Somebody today, whether they had a great dad or not, need the blessing of the Heavenly Father. I do believe it is our duty to present them with that gift.

Those are literally my immediate thoughts. I just come up with my words as I typed (with a few spell checks and grammar checks, of course). But always remember, Abba Father loves you very much, and you're blessed to have Him! Now, someone else needs Him. What will you do about it?

I will attempt to write a more formal post later on (hopefully not too later on). Cheerio!

In Christ,

Your long lost friend,

Paul